The purpose of this project is to obtain sufficient partial sequence analysis from bacterial surface membrane proteins to allow construction of synthetic oligonucleotide probes with which the genes encoding the proteins can be isolated. The genes will then be sequenced by standard methods and may also be used to generate pure material from Escherichia coli for vaccine development. Milligram amounts of surface proteins from Borrelia hermsii and Chlamydia trachomatis have been purified by preparative SDS-gel electrophoresis and examined by automated sequence analysis. These preliminary analyses indicate that appropriate sequences for probe construction are located in the N-terminal region of the Borrelia pII protein and the Chlamydia L-2 major outer membrane protein (MOMP). In contrast, none of the PI proteins sequenced well in the Beckman system. Techniques directed at selective purification of probe compatible peptides by HPLC from the PIs are currently being developed.